Ron´s Trip

After a quick briefing, we jumped on the bikes and were off onto the Interamerican Highway crossing the only (active) bridge between North and South America (Puente de las Americas).  By in large the Interamerican Highway is a divided highway with two lanes on either side only within close proximity to major cities.  The rest of the time the road is undivided two lanes requiring frequent passing of slow moving trucks.  Potholes and road construction were present everywhere in Panama, but especially troublesome on this major road.  Frequently, cars would dodge the potholes and swerve into the oncoming traffic lanes.  Kind of unnerving for the uninitiated.  On the other hand, we were quite pleasantly surprised by how easily the KTM 640 handled the potholes; what would have been a bone jarring experience on a heavy cruiser (or even a car) was hardly noticeable on the KTMs.

Less than an hour into the journey we headed up a narrow road towards Chia.  In Panama, the temperature variation throughout the year is seldom very different.  December until April is considered “Summer” not because it is any hotter, but rather this is the “dry” season.  As we would soon learn, once departing the Interamerican Highway and heading into the mountains, the riding becomes a lot more interesting with much less traffic, much cooler, and frequently wetter.

Back on the highway for another 50 km and we turn off toward El Valle with the intention of  seeing some of the rain forest and maybe even trying a zip-line through the tree tops.  More rain discouraged this idea however.

Torrential rain in El Valle Seeking shelter in the marketplace

Once we headed back down to the highway the sun came back and the temperature went back up to the high 80 degrees F.  A short hop up the highway and we stopped for lunch right on the beach at Playa Santa Clara.  Fresh seafood delivered within sight of the small fishing boats anchored offshore.  The food throughout Panama was uniformly bland but fresh, safe, and adequate (the exception was the fresh fruit which was quite good).  I learned to enjoy the fried platanos.

Day 2 finds us on our first dirt road.  For Carl, this was his initiation to dual sport riding and I’m not sure how much he appreciated the ease with which the KTMs handled the rough surfaces.  With the exception of an occasional dog which felt the need to chase us off his turf, the people we passed in the various small villages were friendly, curious, and perhaps intrigued.  We noticed a lot of kids who would stare at us and either wave or jump out of the road.  Probably many of them had never seen motorcycles (especially more than one) ridden by “space aliens” in full face helmets.  A few observations worth noting: Throughout the country, even in remote small villages, one would observe small cemeteries where virtually every grave site would have fresh flowers.  This is quite a feat when you consider the warm temperatures, but does illustrate the strong sense of family and the omnipresence of the Church (at least one in each village).  The other interesting observation is that every small town had a small grocery store run by Chinese people.  In fact, about 10% of the Panamanian population has Chinese ancestry.  The store becomes one of the social centers of the town where women can be seen selling lottery tickets.  

Cemetery	Potholes	Store	Lottery ticket sale

After a quick pass through Penonome we head to Nata and one of the oldest churches in central America.  Well restored with wood carvings done by the Indians.

Penonome	Nata Church	Carvings

 Next we head onto the Peninsula de Azuero, stopping for lunch in Las Tablas.  After lunch we experience one of the highlights of our trip:  the perfect motorcycle road.  From Pocri the road is two lanes of perfectly new asphalt with lots of twisty turns and scenic views of the Pacific ocean as we pass through the Isla Canas wildlife preserve.  Maybe we saw 6 cars in an hour!  The scenery reminds me of what California must have been like without all the people.  As this was the first time I had ridden a KTM, I just couldn’t resist seeing how the bike would perform.  Much to my delight, the machine handled more like a sport bike and a dirt bike!  The brembo brakes are awesome and there is plenty of torque to pull even my 220 lbs through the turns with adrenaline excitement.  A short ride down a dirt road and we arrive at a great surf beach.  One house, one cantina, a few surfers, and even a bikini clad blonde trying to set up her tent.  My idea of paradise!

Day 2 was one of our longest riding days, about 400 km.  As we left a final rest stop near dusk I noticed that the headlights on the KTM we not on and appeared to not be working!  Rode behind Taso back to the hotel in Guayacanes on the outskirts of Chitre in the dark only to discover upon arrival that I had turned the key to the left (auxiliary position) which allowed the bike to be started, but the lights wouldn’t come on.  Hard way to learn a valuable lesion!  Stayed in a nice new hotel with indoor-outdoor dining.

<< Back        Next >>